In the Press

Our Town: An Inventive, Multicultural Take on an American Classic

'Kok’s and ITI’s Our Town is a refreshing, multicultural take on a classic small town American play, effectively connecting the contemporary to the traditional. The cast took several risks and pushed boundaries in this final performance of ITI’s graduating cohort... Looking ahead, I’m excited to see what this talented batch of actors will have in store for us as they embark on the next stage of their careers.'

- Popspoken

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Review: Our Town by Intercultural Theatre Institute

'Visually rich and undeniably inventive in its staging, Kok Heng Leun and ITI’s Our Town is the perfect update to an old script for a modern Singaporean audience. Drawing out its inherent melancholy and concerns with the fragility of life and fleeting nature of time, Our Town is a timely reminder to cherish all we know and love now before it’s too late, and echoes a deep-seated nostalgia for a simpler time and friendlier people. As these students soon graduate, one hopes they’ll bring all they’ve learnt with them into the arts scene and continually strive to improve further; this is promising stuff we’ve seen, and we’re sure that this won’t be the last we hear of from any of them as we follow them into their next endeavours.'

- Bak Chor Mee Boy

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Our Town - Interview with director Kok Heng Leun and choreographer Koh Wan Ching

'ITI’s graduating cohort of 2017 presents Our Town, the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. This rendition is set to be an intercultural interpretation of Wilder's play. Find out how Our Town is relevant to Singapore's multicultural, multilingual society and how a community can respond to changes in today’s context. 

We speak to the director Kok Heng Leun and choreographer Koh Wan Ching to find out how the team attempts to localise the play's context, 80 years after Our Town was first performed.'

- Arts Republic

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Intercultural theatre practices | Interview with Frances Barbe

'As part of the media partnership with Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI), we have interviewed Frances Barbe, Director, Choreographer and Performer and one of the speakers at the upcoming Asian Intercultural Conference in Singapore (27-30 November 2017). Frances has shared her extensive experience in working in intercultural theatre and in particular with different training techniques, including butoh dance.'

- ASEF Culture 360

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Preview: Our Town by Intercultural Theatre Institute (+Interview with Director Kok Heng Leun)

'Presented in collaboration with the Esplanade, the Intercultural Theatre Institute’s graduating cohort will be performing their newest show at the Esplanade Theatre Studio this November, following their previous production of Leakages. Directed by Drama Box Artistic Director and Arts NMP Kok Heng Leun, ITI presents American playwright Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize winning play – Our Town. 

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Loan Ranger

'On 21 August, the Intercultural Theatre Institute officially launched the Möbius Fund, a zero-interest financial assistance fund for its students. On repayment, the funds are channelled back to the pool, to be awarded to subsequent cohorts. Kick-started by lead donors, and matched, dollar-for-dollar, by the National Arts Council under the Cultural Matching Fund, the S$500,000 revolving loan fund is raising a second tranche of S$300,000. Public donations can be made via fundraising platforms Giving.sg, Give.Asia, or Ammado.

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Leakage(s) and Anticoagulants: An Unflinching Exploration of Morality

'As a semi-surrealist play, Leakage(s) and Anticoagulants does a great job at balancing both the realist, narrative scenes and the psychological explorations of Raskolnikov’s mind. A chorus of eight (Desmond Soh, Henrik Cheng, Regina Foo, Shirley Tan, Sonia Kwek, Teo Dawn, Uma Katju, Wong Yunjie) represents the inner workings of Raskolnikov’s psyche, sharing their doubts, manipulating and urging her on throughout the play. At times at odds with one another, the chorus reflects Raskolnikov’s inner conflict, as she is torn between confessing her crime and keeping silent while an innocent Mikolai (Saran Jith) is convicted in her place.

What struck me the most was the sheer physicality of the performance – director Alberto Ruiz Lopez has crafted riveting movement sequences that bring out the potential of his students, particularly the eight-actor chorus.'

- Popspoken

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杀人犯不可靠的自白——观《泄漏物与抗凝血剂》

Review of Leakage(s) and Anticoagulants by Lianhe Zaobao. 

- Lianhe Zaobao

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Review: Leakage(s) and Anticoagulants by ITI

'Leakage(s) and Anticoagulants is an intelligent and unflinching examination of morality and provides an excellent showcase of the abilities of the graduating batch of ITI students, who possessed a strong sense of camaraderie onstage. The ease of which the cast handled themselves and the tricky script is a demonstration on the strength of the ITI training program and the vast array of skills they have acquired over the last three years. We wait with great anticipation to see what new projects these new graduates embark on next and hope the bonds forged during this period will lead to further collaborations between this talented batch of artists.'

- Bak Chor Mee Boy

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跨文化戏剧学院毕业生呈献 八个声音寻找一个身份认同

Leakage(s) and Anticoagulants is previewed in Lianhe Zaobao, with an interview with students Tan Weiying and Desmond Soh.

- Lianhe Zaobao

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